J.K. Rowling to Script New Harry Potter Film

[Redstar]

Looks like the big industry news for today is that J.K. Rowling, writer of the immensely popular Harry Potter series, will be writing the screenplay for a planned spin-off film. This film will be based around her character Newt Scamander, the fictional writer of the in-universe textbook "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."

Rowling explains:

It all started when Warner Bros. came to me with the suggestion of turning ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ into a film. I thought it was a fun idea, but the idea of seeing Newt Scamander, the supposed author of ‘Fantastic Beasts,’ realized by another writer was difficult. Having lived for so long in my fictional universe, I feel very protective of it and I already knew a lot about Newt. As hard-core Harry Potter fans will know, I liked him so much that I even married his grandson, Rolf, to one of my favourite characters from the Harry Potter series, Luna Lovegood.

Cue fan amazement contrasted by those proclaiming her lazy and greedy. Thoughts?

[ultimateemail5000]

My fiance' is a huge HP fan, like she gets emotional when it comes to the series. Nearly flipped when she read that. I am glad to see it happen, I recently watched all of them and enjoyed the series. I would like to see what this new movie will be, since the creator is writing the script.

[Serum]

I've only seen the most recent Harry Potter movie, "Deadly Hollows Part 2" or whatever. I'd never read any of the books or seen any of the movies until I went to go see that one in theaters with some friends not knowing what was going on. I would keep turning to my friend and saying "What's that mean?" Or "Who's that guy?" Some dude in front of me turned around and said "Hey, shut up!" To which I replied "You shut up." He shut up.

[Phlibbit]

I'm pretty excited about this! I wasn't expecting Rowling to return to the Wizarding world for anything major like a new book for a while. It's really intriguing that she herself is writing the screenplay for this new film--I can imagine that is one reason why she's down for this idea, because writing a screenplay will be something new and different for her.

[Redstar]

I'm pretty excited about this! I wasn't expecting Rowling to return to the Wizarding world for anything major like a new book for a while. It's really intriguing that she herself is writing the screenplay for this new film--I can imagine that is one reason why she's down for this idea, because writing a screenplay will be something new and different for her.

Another part of it may be that Warner Bros. has the rights to the property and would make another film without Rowling if they could. Rowling would rather script a story herself to be sure it fits within her concept of her world.